MP: Families of Stepanakert fuel depot blast victims still seeking answers two years on

Families of those killed in the 2023 Stepanakert fuel depot explosion are still struggling to uncover what happened and who bears responsibility for one of the deadliest incidents during the final days of Nagorno-Karabakh’s collapse, opposition MP Tigran Abrahamyan says.

The blast, which occurred at a Defense Army fuel facility amid Azerbaijan’s September 2023 offensive and the mass displacement of Artsakh’s Armenian population, claimed the lives of more than 200 people. The fate of around 20 others remains unknown.

In a social media post on Tuesday, Abrahamyan, who represents the Pativ Unem faction, stressed the victims’ relatives have spent more than two years appealing to government agencies without receiving meaningful answers.

“Families are still trying to figure out what really happened and who should be held accountable,” he wrote. “Yet they have not received proper responses.”

According to Abrahamyan, around 80 of the victims served in security and defense structures, with some arriving at the depot directly from frontline positions. He argued that the entire sequence of events leading to the explosion was inseparable from the hostilities at the time.

The opposition MP also noted that the victims have not been officially granted a status that would recognize the link between the explosion and the conflict, leaving families ineligible for assistance from state-supported funds.

“The authorities need people for war, training exercises and service,” he said. “But after such a tragedy, families are left alone with their grief and problems.”